ALTA Book One: Water
by TimeKitty
Summary: Chee is the Avatar and is also Aang's brother. The siblings are frozen in an iceberg for 100 years until they are awoken by Katara and Sokka. They travel the world together on Appa to the North Pole while a banished, firebender prince follows them, determined to regain his so-called honor. Is Zuko Chee's only problem of getting to the North Pole, or is there something far bigger?


My grey eyeballs fluttered open with a small grunt from me, and a rather larger one from my brother, Aang. The first thing I noticed before I came-to was that it was massively cold, and I was laying on some ice that had some hints of snow settling on top of itself. I felt my brother's hand lay limp on top of my knuckles, so I must have collapsed before he did.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that a very pretty-looking girl was looking at the both of us, very concerned. She had water tribe written all over her, from her hairstyle to her blue water tribe coat. There was another guy standing behind the girl, no doubt water tribe himself as well. From his expression, he was most certainly related to the girl.

From another grunt, I heard Aang whisper something that I couldn't exactly hear. The pretty one looked over at him, "What?" she leaned over to him.

Aang must have said something again, so Pretty One leaned even closer while asking, "What is it?"

I listened intently for what he was going to say, but without a warning... "Will you go penguin sliding with me?" he nearly shouted. I turned my head over to him. I thought he was completely mad, asking that question. Here we are, just got out of a frozen iceberg for who know how long, just being woken up by a couple of strangers from the water tribe, and he asks her on a date?

I actually agreed with him there.

"Yeah, please?" I nodded eagerly, then I made myself float to a standing position, letting some snowflakes from the ice dance around my feet.

"Uh, sure?" Pretty One hesitated and leaned back to her comfort zone. "I guess?"

Not long after that, Aang stood up next to me in the same process that I did, and we started to look around. Pretty One's brother let out a shriek and his spear that he was holding came out in front of him, thinking that we were dangerous. I wanted to laugh, but it was funny! "Where are we?" I asked the siblings.

"What's going on here?" Aang also asked. Oh, Aang, you never let me ask questions first, do you? He rubbed his bald head where his light blue arrows were in confusion as to where we were. Water was everywhere, but not in a flooding manner. The occasional glacier pointed out from the water, and we were standing on a relatively small one, with the entire iceberg behind us.

"You tell us!" Pretty One's brother yelled at us. "How'd you get in the ice?!" He poked Aang in the stomach softly with his spear. "And why aren't you frozen?"

"We're not sure," Aang looked around absentmindedly while I shooed Pretty One's spear away from Aang.

We then heard a grunt come from behind us, and it could only be one animal that it came from. I gasped and Aang and I ran over the small lump of ice and we jumped from the ground and glided onto the large animal it came from.

I landed on Appa's side of the head, with my hands hugging the left horn. "Appa!" I heard Aang greet loudly. He had quite a loud voice, and it always bothered me at the Air Temple.

"Are you alright?" I cuddled my face into the flying bison and gave him a couple of kisses. I then slid down from him to find Aang examining his eyes.

"Wake up, buddy!" Aang lifted one of Appa's eyelids to reveal brown eyes, but surely enough, they close again. He's too tired to keep them open. He then slid down from his face and Aang put his back against Appa's mouth and tried to lift it up.

"Help me," Aang begged me as he grunted while still trying to lift the mouth.

I laughed as I ran over to help out Aang, ignoring Pretty One and her brother's shocked expressions from around the ice corner. Soon enough, Appa's mouth opened and out came his massive tongue and it lifted both of us off the ground for a couple of seconds. "You're okay!" Aang and I laughed together.

After we recovered from the tongue landing, we turned around and began hugging him properly. Appa pulled away so he could stand up and shake his fur off from the ruffles that I hadn't noticed at all.

"What is that thing?!" Pretty One's brother came from around the ice corner with his sister falling behind him. I rolled my eyes at him, not liking his attitude.

"This is Appa," Aang explained, "our flying bison!"

"Right, and this is Katara, my flying sister," Katara's brother pointed sarcastically at her. Katara glared at him, but got over it quickly.

Aang looked as if he were to say something, but was interrupted by Appa sneezing. The snot reached over to Katara's brother (I may have helped with that). He shrieked with disgust, and began rubbing his face on the snow to try and get rid of it.

"Don't worry, it washes out," I reassured him and gave Appa a small pat on his on top of his nose. Katara's brother pressed his palm to his cheek and collected some snot. I giggled as he grew more disgusted and stuck his tongue out.

"So... do you guys live around here?" Aang asked innocently.

"Don't answer that!" the brother got his grown-up act back together and pointed his spear at Aang once more, earning me a glare from him this time. "Did you see that crazy bolt of light? They was probably trying to signal the Fire Navy!"

"Oh yeah, I'm sure they're spies for the Fire Navy," Katara did a perky walk over to us as she commented sarcastically. Sarcasm runs in the family, I see. "You can tell be the evil look in their eyes."

To make it funny, Aang and I both did our most innocent faces, and I could imagine my grey eyes shining with a twinkle and my black hair having a shine as well.

"The paranoid one is my brother, Sokka," Katara explained to us. "You never told us your guys' names."

"I'm Aa-" Aang was interrupted by a sneeze, in which he flew ten feet in the air, while I moved to where he was last standing. Aang landed in my arms, then we shot a cute smile at Sokka and Katara before letting Aang jump up out of my arms. "I'm Aang," he finished.

"I'm Chee!" I sniffed as I felt a sneeze coming, too.

"You just sneezed!" Sokka looked dumbfounded. "And flew ten feet in the air!"

"No, didn't look that low," I shook my head.

"Yeah, it felt higher than that!" Aang agreed and nodded.

Realization waved over Katara, according to her gasp. "You guys are airbenders!"

"Sure are!" I nodded at her.

"Giant light beams," Sokka began listing off as he turned around and started to walk away, "flying bison, airbenders. I think I've got Midnight Sun Madness! I'm going home to where stuff makes sense." Shortly, Sokka stopped walking. He was already at the edge of the ice with no where to to go with any means of transportation.

"...Well, if you guys are stuck, Chee, Appa, and I can give you guys a lift," Aang broke the silence. I grinned at him, then I kicked off the ground and landed on top of Appa's head with Aang right next to me.

"We'd love a ride, thanks!" Katara ran over to the side of the bison and began trying to climb up on top.

"Oh no," Sokka shook his head. "I'm not getting on that fluffy snot monster!"

"Are you hoping some other kind of monster will come along and give you a ride home?" Katara asked as she climbed on. "You know, before you _freeze to death_?"

Sokka was about the object, but soon saw no valid argument against it. With a sigh, he climbed up on top of Appa. With his arms crossed and Katara looking dazzled, "Alright! First-time flyers! Hold on tight!" I advised them before I sat back on Appa's short neck.

"Appa, yip-yip!" Aang pulled the reins and made Appa stand up. He flicked his tail and he jumped up in the air, but it soon simply turned into a belly-flop into the ice-cold water.

"Wow, that was truly amazing," Sokka's expression was sour and very unimpressed, earning him once again, another glare from both Katara and me.

"Appa's just tired," I explained to him, with a bit of attitude. "A little rest and he'll be soaring through the sky."

"You'll see!" Aang smiled at them, but after a bit, it didn't disappear. I giggled a bit when Katara noticed Aang was smiling at her nonstop.

She gave him a confused and hesitant stare before asking, "Why are you smiling at me like that?"

"O-Oh, I was smiling?" Aang's smile fell as he stuttered. I laughed at him while Sokka was heard groaning in the background, but I learned to ignore him.

I grew dusk quickly and I was pondering on how long Aang and I were in the iceberg. I would imagine more that a few weeks or months, but perhaps no more than a year. I would look a lot different if it was more than a year, right?

My head was resting on Aang's stomach was was rising and falling with every breath he took. My black hair was scattering from it's headband that I got from Ba Sing Se a couple months before we ran away. My grey eyes were looking at the blue/pink clouds, searching for little pictures in them.

"Hey," I turned my head to see Katara hanging herself from the large saddle, overlooking at us from below.

"Hey," Aang said sweetly. "Whatcha thinking about?"

I smiled, and decided to look back up at the sky. I knew Aang liked her, it was written all over him, so I'll give him some space.

"I guess I was wondering, you being airbenders and all, if you had any idea what happened to the Avatar?" Katara asked us.

My heart skipped a beat and I felt my eyes widen a little. I could imagine Aang feeling the same. "No," he said hesitantly. "I didn't know him. I mean, I knew people that knew him, but I didn't. Sorry."

"Okay, just curious," Katara clearly sounding disappointed. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Aang mumbled and looked at me concerned. I returned the same glance, then I gave him a look that said _we'll talk later_.

Thunder crackled through the blazing storm, with rain pouring down hard at 100 mph. Lightning struck nearby, and I was clinging to the saddle for dear life. Aang was screaming and I felt Appa crash into the water.

We came underwater and I squinted my eyes shut and clung onto the saddle harder. Appa managed to come back up to the surface, but another wave took him down. We were fully underwater now, and I could feel myself give in to darkness.

Then something happened. I don't know what, but I could feel myself connect to the water around me, and I saw ice form around us, into a giant sphere that kept tightening and tightening and tightening until...

"Chee! Wake up!"

I gasped awake and I flung up into a sitting position with my arms wailing. I looked over and saw Katara shaking me. "It's okay. We're in the village now. Come on, get ready. Everyone's waiting to meet you and Aang!"

I nodded and I climbed out of the bed that I was apparently sleeping in. We weren't on Appa anymore. We arrived at Katara and Sokka's supposed "village", and I was sleeping in a blue sleeping bag under a tan tent.

I started to fix my hair by putting in into my Earth Kingdom headband and pulling remaining hairs to my back. I started to pull down my sleeves when Katara pulled me away. I wailed a bit from the unexpected force.

Katara dragged me outside to where Aang was already standing, waving in a cute fashion at the little kids.

"Aang, Chee, this is the entire village," Katara said. "Entire village, Aang and Chee!" It felt very anticlimactic, with the small portion of the village. It was all very silent and Aang had stopped his waving.

I took a traditional bow that the monks had taught me during airbending training, and in return I get nothing but mothers pulling their children back behind them. "Uh, why are they all looking at us like that?" I pointed out, then I examined myself. "Appa didn't sneeze again, right?"

An elderly lady stepped from out of the crowd that I hadn't even noticed. "Well, no one has seen an airbender in a hundred years. We thought they were extinct, until my granddaughter and grandson found you two."

"'Extinct?'" Aang quoted while I looked very shocked by the news. There were plenty of airbenders before Aang and I ran away. Did something happen?

"Aang, Chee, this is my grandmother," Katara explained to us.

"Call me Gran-Gran," Gran-Gran's face remained unreadable and emotionless. I nodded for understanding and gave a small smile, but I didn't exactly care.

I _did_ start to care when Sokka snatched Aang's staff from out of his hands. "What is this, a weapon? You can't stab anything with this!"

"It's not for stabbing," I gritted my teeth.

"It's for airbending!" Aang corrected and he created a jet of air that pulled the staff back into his hands, then gave it a little shake that caused the flaps to roll out of the staff, which made Sokka jump back in surprise.

"Magic trick!" a little girl gasped. "Do it again!"

"Not magic, airbending," Aang corrected once more. "It lets me control the air currents around my glider and fly!"

"You know, last time I checked, humans. Can't. Fly," Sokka moved his head toward Aang every time he said a word.

"Check again!" I dared as Aang got himself settled into his glider. He then shot up out of the sky and started showing off all his little tricks that I have seen hundred of times more. I laughed my bum off when he got his head stuck in a snow structure that Sokka called his "watchtower."

"That was amazing!" Katara complimented as she helped Aang to his feet and I dusted the snow off of the glider and handed it back to him.

After Sokka got a pile of snow off of him, his anger snapped back to him. "Great. You're an airbender, Chee's an airbender, Katara's a waterbender, together you can just waste time all day long."

"You're a waterbender?" I turned to Katara, surprised that she hasn't showed her abilities yet.

"Well... sort of," Katara shyed away. "Not yet."

"Alright, no more playing around," Gran-Gran came over to us and put an arm around Katara. "Come on, Katara, you have chores."

I turned my attention to Aang and took his glider into my hand and I gathered the kids to us. "You want to see some real magic, guys?"

"Yeah!" the little girl from before nodded eagerly.

"Observe!" I held out the glider in front of Aang and he stuck his tongue on it.

"See?" Aang kept his tongue at the glider. "Now my tongue ith stuh to my sthaff!" I pulled on the glider a bit, and made Aang shriek in a bit of pain, before returning it back to him. I laughed with the kids and watched Aang try to untangle himself.

A little while later, we managed to build a giant slide with Appa's tail and Sokka's unused spear. The kids were laughing with delight as Aang was helping them down the slide while I was putting them up.

Soon enough, Mr. Grumpy Pants comes in. "Stop! Stop it right now! What's wrong with you two? We don't have time for fun and games with a war going on!

My eyes focused on Sokka intently. "What war?" my voice shook a bit.

"What're you talking about?" Aang, just as clueless as me, asked.

"You're kidding, right?" Sokka asked like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I was about to say "no" when a penguin caught our eye.. "PENGUIN!" Aang and I ran at lightning speed over to the penguin that was now retreating with fright.

"Aang?" we heard Katara's voice from a short distance. "Chee?"

"Haha, come on little guy!" Aang cooed at the fleeing penguins. "Wanna go sliding?"

Aang makes a leap of faith at one of them, but ends up with a pile of snow on his face and my laughter coming from behind him.

Aang and I turn around to see Katara with a smile of amusement on her face. "I have a way of animals," he turned around and imitated a penguin, with the wailing arms and sound.

Katara laughed. "Aang, I'll help you catch a penguin if you teach me waterbending."

"Sorry, I'm not a waterbender," Aang shook his head.

"What about you, Chee?"

"I'm an airbender, not a waterbender," I added a little too quick, but she didn't seem to notice. "Don't you have someone in your tribe who could teach you some waterbending?"

Katara's face fell and turned away. "No. You're looking at the only waterbender in the whole South Pole."

'This isn't right," Aang shook his head. "A waterbender needs to master water."

"What about the North Pole?" I asked suddenly, trying to spring up some hope. "There's another Water Tribe up there, right? Maybe they can get you a teacher?"

"Maybe," Katara agreed, but her face didn't lighten up. "But we haven't had contact with our sister tribe in a long time. It's not exactly 'turn right at the second glacier'. It's on the other side of the world!"

"But you forget!" I wagged my finger at her.

"We have a flying bison!" Aang revealed. "Appa, Chee, and I can personally fly you to the North Pole. Katara, we're gonna find you a master!"

My stomach churned a bit at that, but I let it go. Katara looked happy. "That's...," then she looked very uncertain. "I mean, I don't know. I've never left home before."

"Well, you think about it," Aang shrugged it off. "But in the meantime, can you teach me to catch one of these penguins?"

Katara laughed and nodded in a spiritual and commanding way. "Okay, listen closely, my young pupil. Catching penguins is an ancient and sacred art. Observe." She threw a small, grey fish at Aang who barely caught it. Almost immediately, a swarm of penguins came tumbling over Aang for the fish. He and I were laughing uncontrollably.

Aang got his penguin, and I rode in the back with him. Katara decided to join in the fun, but saw there was no room, so she got her own penguin. The next thing we knew, were sliding over bumps, downhill, and we even found a tunnel with beautiful crystals inside and we could see our reflections easily.

After a bit of that, we got onto flat terrain and the sliding came to an end. We were thrown off softly by the penguins who then waddled away together.

I was soon awe struck by a large, black battleship that was caught in large pieces of ice, making in turn diagonal. The Fire Nation symbol was seen on the flag at the top of the long pole.

"What is that?" I asked, a bit of fear escaping.

"A Fire Navy ship," Katara replied coldly. "And a very bad memory for my people."

Aang started walking forward before I could grab his shoulder and run the opposite direction. "Aang, stop!" I shrieked.

"We're not allowed to go near it," Katara agreed. "The ship could be booby trapped!"

"If you want to be a bender, then you have to let go of fear," Aang advised and looked back at us, waiting.

Katara sighed and clenched her teeth together and walked forward, me following afterward. We looked at Aang for him to lead us through the ship.

Inside the ship, it was probably warmer outside. The whole place smelt of rotten eggs and metal and the sounds of our breathing and water drips around us. We passed dark rooms that showed storage, bedrooms, and eventually the weaponry.

"This ship has haunted my tribe since Gran-Gran was a little girl," Katara finally explained. "It was part of the Fire Nation's first attacks."

"Okay, back up," Aang picked up a black spear and examined it while I looked at some of the bows. "I have friends all over the world, even in the Fire Nation. I've never seen any war!"

"You guys, how long were you in that iceberg?" Katara asked with her eyes wide.

"I don't know," Aang shrugged.

"A few weeks or something?" I asked, uncertain.

"I think it was more like a hundred years!" Katara concluded.

"What?" I asked, turning around quickly. "That's not possible."

"Do we look like old people to you?" Aang half joked, half asked.

"Think about it," Katara instructed. "The war is a century old. You two don't know about it because, somehow, you were in there that whole time. It's the only explanation."

I let my eyes widen and blink back tears as I sat down on the floor. I place my head in my hands and my elbows on my legs. "A hundred years," I repeated.

"I can't believe it," Aang shook his head and sat next to me.

"I'm sorry, you guys," Katara smiled sadly. "Maybe somehow, there's a bright side to all of this?"

"We _did_ get to meet you!" Aang smiled at Katara, whom smiled back and maybe even blushed a bit.

"Come on," Katara rose to her feet and pulled me along with her. "Let's get out of here." We helped Aang to his feet, then started to walk over to the archway and then we were homefree

Aang didn't seem to listen, however, as we stumbled into another room. This was another weapon room, filled with less of them and a few scorch marks. "Aang, let's head back," I advised him. "This place is creepy."

"Huh?" Aang looked down to see his red shoe collide with a thin piece of white string. The door suddenly closed behind us and we instinctively ran over to it and tried to raise it back up.

"What's that you said about booby traps?" I asked Katara. Suddenly, machinery behind us started to activate, smoke blowing and sounds being made. We looked out a window and saw that a missile had been launched high in the sky, like a signal.

It left a hole in the roof, which meant that we could hop out of here. "Hold on tight!" Aang gathered Katara in his arms and jumped very high out of the room. I easily followed with no weight dragging me down.

As we climbed down, I couldn't help but feel the slightest feeling that we were being watched by an unpleasant person or crew...


End file.
